Sizable victories for the Democrats in a series of races offer cheer after a year of Donald Trump. But the party should not feel too reassuredIt was the boost they needed. The jubilation of Democrats as they celebrated the results of Tuesday’s elections owed much to the despair of one year before, when they learned that Donald Trump was on his way to the White House, as well as to the extraordinary events since, which have amplified his unfitness for the presidency and the extent of Russia...
US politics
The Resistance Now: health bill gains traction and handmaids protest Pence
Eighteen Senate Democrats have pledged support for ‘public’ healthcare option, while the vice-president takes heat from Margaret Atwood fans
As Trump tries to destroy the Affordable Care Act from the right of the political spectrum, those on the progressive side continue to push health reform legislation of their own - undaunted, or even in defiance, of the president.
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Tracking Trump: president gives himself top marks for military bereavement calls
President claimed he ‘called every family of someone who’s died’ as tensions flared with sergeant’s relatives and later gave himself 10/10 on Puerto Rico
- Each week Trump seems to make more news than most presidents do in a lifetime. The Guardian is keeping track of it all in this series, every Saturday
It was unclear exactly what Donald Trump hoped to achieve when he decided to cut a key element of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – subsidies to insurance companies to help them cover those on low incomes – except perhaps a sense of pure destructive joy in damaging something his predecessor built that Republicans in Congress seemed unable to dismantle. On Saturday, he, crowed that he had ended a “Dems windfall” for insurance companies.
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Number of US adults without health insurance up 3.5m this year, study finds
Rising premiums and political turmoil over Obamacare undermine the gains that drove the nation’s uninsured rate to a historic low
The number of US adults without health insurance is up nearly 3.5 million this year, as rising premiums and political turmoil over Obamacare undermine coverage gains that drove the nation’s uninsured rate to a historic low.
Related: 'He keeps zigging and zagging': the perils of doing a healthcare deal with Trump
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‘He keeps zigging and zagging’: the perils of doing a healthcare deal with Trump
This week, senators moved to salvage the Obamacare subsidies Trump cut – but Washington remains confused over which way the president is swinging
Chuck Schumer was at the gym when his phone rang, just over a week after the latest version of the Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act foundered. It was Donald Trump calling the most senior Democrat in the Senate with an idea.
Related: Senators reach bipartisan deal to salvage Obamacare subsidies Trump eliminated
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Senators reach bipartisan deal to salvage Obamacare subsidies Trump eliminated
Republican Lamar Alexander and Democrat Patty Murray reach deal to help insurance companies cover medical needs of low-income Americans
Senators have moved to salvage Obamacare following Donald Trump’s decision last week to scrap critical subsidies that underpin the health law.
Republican senator Lamar Alexander announced on Tuesday that he had reached a deal with Democrat Patty Murray to fund the federal payments – intended to help insurance companies cover the medical needs of low-income Americans – in exchange for allowing states more regulatory flexibility under the Affordable Care Act.
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McConnell and Trump put on show of unity as Bannon urges Republican ‘war’
- President says he and Senate leader are ‘closer than ever before’
- ‘He is failing’: Trump strikes out solo as friends worry and enemies circle
Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell appeared side-by-side in the Rose Garden after lunch at the White House on Monday in a show of solidarity after the president’s former chief strategist called for the metaphorical assassination of the Senate majority leader.
Trump insisted he and McConnell are “closer than ever before”, despite publicly criticizing the Republican leader for the Senate’s failure to enact the president’s legislative agenda, including Republicans’ failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which Trump called a “disgrace”.
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Bannon says Trump will ‘blow up’ Obamacare as subsidies cut stokes fires
- Moderate Collins and Democrat Murphy decry cut to low-income help
- Trump responds to healthcare critics with claim ‘millions’ will benefit
A day after Steve Bannon seemed to confirm Donald Trump’s intent to destroy the Affordable Care Act (ACA), saying the president was “gonna blow that thing up”, a Republican senator who helped dynamite two Republican replacement bills said Trump was hurting American citizens.
Related: Steve Bannon renews call for war on Rep...
Saturday Night Live: here come the Harvey Weinstein jokes – a week late
Kumail Nanjiani was likable and Kate McKinnon shone as usual. But in the dispiriting America of Harvey and Donald, the best tactic was to keep it surreal
Kumail Nanjiani – The Big Sick, Silicon Valley – is in charge tonight. But first: Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump giving an address in a hangar. This week, he explains, he’s been reversing everything Obama did: Obamacare, the nuclear deal with Iran … and ‘We’re ripping out all of the vegetables in Michelle Obama’s garden and planting M...